Forum Topic
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-01-2012 6:07 PMAt the beginning the Engineer voluntarily drinks a toxic substance but it is not clear why. If it was a ritual why was there no ceremony? Is it possible he was being punished? The Engineers were a close knit group living and working in close harmony and very advanced. If an Engineer committed an ultimate sin, the worst punishment would be to leave him in complete isolation as banishment, not unlike the character Prometheus who wanted equal footing with the gods. They gave him a choice to kill himself or wander aimlessly on an empty island far away from any other engineer with no possible means of travel. It looked to me like the Engineer was sad just prior to drinking the goo as he chose suicide.
What if the life he spawned was not intentional? At some point the Engineers returned and interacted with the new creations but there was no sign of genocide or torture. The ancient texts and cave art depict a friendly interaction. This could have been some engineers trying to help humans who were completely inferior and served no purpose. In a different thread I speculated they were an older version of us but in this case, they are not a version of us at all. After several attempts to help they simply gave up and left.
There was no sign of further attempts at interaction until after we developed the technology for space travel. Maybe some of the Engineers thought we were too big of a mistake to be let out of our earth cage and wanted to stop us before discovering other intelligent life?
There is a scene that has been bugging me until now. When the engineer exits stasis and looks at everyone, it seems to be rather surprised and then when David speaks, the Engineer displays an act of remorse just before decapitating David, who he probably assumed was a human. It reminded me of George killing Lennie. The Engineer gently rubbing David's head was a sign of approval and even tenderness. Nevertheless, he had a job to do. Once he saw humans had found their outpost he immediately targeted earth without seeking what happened to his friends.
thoughts?
34 Replies
Xenotron
MemberOvomorphOct-01-2012 6:12 PMDon't worry; Shaw is flying off to find your answers (but probably not).
shambs
MemberOvomorphOct-01-2012 6:26 PMI have a bad feeling about this...What if Shaw arrives at the Paradise in the last scene of the movie? O.O in fact I can already imagine Ridley said in an interview: "by the end of the third act you start to realize there’s a DNA of the Paradise" LOL
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-01-2012 6:56 PMRidley is too smart to try to answer the question Prometheus is asking so I too doubt Shaw will find out for sure.
I was trying to piece together an explanation from the currently known information. It just doesn't make sense they would create a completely inferior species who showed them there really was little chance of a positive outcome.
Rubirosa
MemberOvomorphOct-01-2012 10:51 PMI have to inform you @Uneeque that Prometheous did not, and never wanted to have extra footing with the gods. He was the son of the Titan Lapetus and his mother was a water nymph called Clymene. Even though he did help the gods in defeating the Titans, he never asked for any favors from Zeus. His error was his love for mankind. Not only did he trick Zeus by stealing fire from Mount Olympus and giving it to mankind. This love for the human race probably comes from the fact that Prometheous is also credited for creating man also. The love he had for his creation is what got him into so much trouble. But later on he would be saved by Hercules who would kill the great eagle who was ripping out and eating Prometheous's liver. Which was the punishement Zeus had laid on Prometheous. His love for mankind is what brought him so much trouble, not his desire to be on the level of Zeus.
Rubirosa
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 8:28 AMZeus above all considered the actions taken on by Prometheous to be unforgivable. This was not the first time Prometheous and Zeus had, had a problem. Prometheous had tricked Zeus in the past, but Zeus forgave him. But not the second time.
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 8:42 AMSo he committed an ultimate sin like the engineer in the OP brainstorm.
Zeus ordered Prometheus to make humans but Prometheus wanted creative control and decided to play the role of a god by deciding humans should have fire. A choice only a god could make. This is why Prometheus wanted equal footing with the gods. Hope that clears it up for you.
zzplural
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 8:53 AM"Here, drink this black stuff and Jump into that waterfall. It's going to wreck your DNA and leave no trace of you whatsoever, because that's the way we like to do things around here. Feck knows what it's made of. I mean, all we can do is fly big spaceships around the place."
On the other hand...
"Look at this weird black stuff that wriggles about and all. Your time's up, Bluey, but don't worry because you are going to be the seed of life on this planet. We're dead good at all this DNA engineering stuff, you know. You'll thank us one day."
I know which one makes more sense to me.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 8:57 AM@zzplural. LV223 is proof the Engineers are not infallible creators. They obviously didn't know the result of their weapons program unless you want to claim they purposefully created a weapon to use on themselves.
I know which one makes the most sense to me.
zzplural
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 9:48 AMJust because an industrial accident occurred on LV_233 is not a good argument for saying that Engineers accidentally managed to create us.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 10:42 AMNobody said it was zzplural. Try sticking to what is posted.
zzplural
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 11:23 AMAs others have noted, man, you have some serious issues.
You were the one who brought up the notion of the Engineers being fallible, leading to the accident on LV_233 (or [i]proof[/i], as you call it), and using this to bolster the notion that we were created by accident.
Thanks for your advice, by the way, but I'll continue to highlight nonsense when I see it.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 11:25 AMRegarding the planet markings from the ancient cultures, Shaw and others assumed it was a map. But what if it was a tag of ownership? The Engineers can't be the only intelligent life form with great space travel ability so maybe the map markings was a way of saying: "This planet belongs to us."
The purpose was bait. Lv223 is where the map leads but that is a desolate and fairly useless planet. It may have been a way to get other intelligent life forms to come to the engineers which is why they hid their ships on lv223.
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 11:33 AM@zzplural.. ....you should focus more on trying to keep up versus your personal assessments of complete strangers. You are the one who claimed:
(zzplural)
"We're dead good at all this DNA engineering stuff, you know. You'll thank us one day."
Do you get it now? I didn't bring up fallibility to bolster my argument. I brought it up to show your claim is pretty weak. If the Engineers were so good at DNA engineering how the hell did they make their own destruction??
That was my only reason for raising the fallibility issue. I hope the majority of people on here are not like you, voidhawk or rubirosa because all ive seen you do at this point is try to personally attack others for their brainstorms.
zzplural
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 1:22 PM[i]"If the Engineers were so good at DNA engineering how the hell did they make their own destruction?"[/i]
Oooh, let me guess. It was a fecking [b]accident[/b]. Shit happens.
If all you've seen of a named few of us are personal attacks, you must have your eyes closed, my friend.
I'll give you a bit of advice, shall I. Chill out a bit and stop telling people what they should be doing.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-02-2012 1:33 PMSo it was an accident they created their own destruction but laughable they accidentally created another species. Okay. Even your goal post moving didn't really help much.
Rubirosa
MemberOvomorphOct-04-2012 9:18 AMI have to admit @Uneeque that you do have a great imagination.
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-04-2012 9:38 AMThank you...and thank you for seeing it was lighthearted comment.
zzplural
MemberOvomorphOct-03-2012 6:06 AMThe Engineers were victims of circumstance. That's very different to stating that "they created their own destruction". "They created the means by which they were subsequently destroyed" would be a far more accurate description of events.
Nobody is in any doubt that the Engineers are fallible and that accidents do happen, as was apparently the case on LV_223. Their fallibility has no bearing on whether or not they accidentally created us at the start of the movie.
They are [i]Engineers[/i]. They are purposeful. They use their skills and knowledge to design, build and maintain complicated systems and processes. They used highly engineered pico-technology to break apart the first Engineer's DNA. In such a specific way that there was [i]obviously[/i] intent behind their actions.
Yes, to imagine that all of that was for no purpose other than to destroy the Engineer is, frankly, risible in my opinion. His DNA fragments were purposefully sown in an environment conducive to dispersal.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-03-2012 7:48 AMWe dont know what they are. Shaw gave them the title of "Engineers" but there is no evidence those on LV223 are the same ones who visited earth.
I think there is a reason Holloway highlighted one of the markings being 35,000 years old.
What doesn't make sense is they would leave one entity to fertilize earth. Other than their advanced technology all we have seen from them so far is failure.
zzplural
MemberOvomorphOct-03-2012 8:57 AM[i]"We dont know what they are. Shaw gave them the title of "Engineers" but there is no evidence those on LV223 are the same ones who visited earth."[/i]
There is plenty of supporting evidence that this is so, but it is not relevant to your contention that we were created by accident, so it's not something I'll explore here.
The ancients were big, blue, humanoid, had exactly the same eyes, flew around in massive spaceships and messed around with black goo technology. Put that in a court of law and you'll find someone saying "I rest my case, M'Lud". Let's call them Engineers based on their actions.
We frankly don't know the full extent of their motivations. The original planet may have been one of millions that they were seeding. Or it may have been Earth. Many scientists today would assert that all life on Earth today sprang from a very limited number (possibly even one) of initial self-replicating molecules. The lone Engineer's body provided vast numbers of building blocks (ten to the power 24 at least), way way more than is necessary to kick off life.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-03-2012 9:17 AMI think it is quite possible they are androids of another civilization and from what we saw on LV223 they were very utilitarian. We saw nothing in Prometheus where they actually designed anything but only the end results.
What makes the least amount of sense is they would use one entity to populate earth. Now, P2 could open with several ships dropping off several Engineers in different parts of the earth and that would make sense. I saw the theory earth was being used to harvest but that makes even less sense. If they are engineers that could create as well as we are lead to believe, they would not need to go through such a lengthy inefficient process.
Bottom line is I am just exploring an explanation for why they interacted with ancient cultures, never brought them together, never shared their technology, and why they suddenly stopped all interaction.
Rubirosa
MemberOvomorphOct-04-2012 4:20 PMThe Jesus Christ theory about Christ himself being sent by the Engineers or being an Engineer himself has been spoken about before on other threads. Talking about religion is not a problem here on this site. When Prometheous came out there were many conversations about the Jesus Christ/Engineer theory. To be honest with you anything is possible.
Rubirosa
MemberOvomorphOct-03-2012 9:11 PMThere are many who talk on from ignorance rather than from knowledge, and who find the former an inexhaustible fund of conversation.-
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) British essayist.
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-03-2012 10:01 PMGood job ignoring your glaring error. It is so sweet you follow up with a self righteous soap box dance.
Caballo de Troya
MemberOvomorphOct-04-2012 3:17 PMSome people might flame me for getting the religious stuff here but, in the movie, it was mentioned that the Engineers where in hibernation for "about" 2000 years, that puts it around the time of the Crucifixion.... They tried to fix their creation, but failed (according to them).
Uneeque
MemberOvomorphOct-05-2012 6:02 AMThat doesn't make much sense because why would they send an engineer way over 35 light years away to talk to a fraction of the population?
Caballo de Troya
MemberOvomorphOct-05-2012 6:50 AMWell, that fraction of the population did a pretty good job spreading the messagge to the whole planet, that message is EVERYWHERE now. Whether the Catholic church distorted and manipulated it is another story... Everyone got the message but still they all act like savages. Reason enough to destroy?
At the begining of the movie, it took just ONE engineer to populate a whole planet.
BIG THINGS HAVE SMALL BEGININGS
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